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By James Kirkup and Christopher Hope DAVID MILIBAND has been forced to deny that he is waging a campaign to destabilise his brother as Labour leader.

He has instructed his allies to support Ed Miliband, despite doubts over his performance, in an attempt to shore up his brother’s position.

The intervention came as Ed Miliband faced questions about tension between him and the brother he beat to the leadership.

A “malicious” group of David Miliband’s supporters is trying to undermine Ed Miliband, according to one of his front bench team. However, David Miliband issued a statement on Sunday urging his backers to support his brother. “I have moved on from the leadership election and so should everyone else,” he said.

“Ed won, I stand fully behind him and so should everyone else. I called for unity last October and I repeat that now. We all have our part to play in supporting Ed and the front bench team to ensure we expose this Government for its reckless policies that are damaging the

country. The rest is soap opera of which I want no part and the public have no interest.”

Ed Miliband was this week attempting to distance himself from Labour’s troubled past by admitting that under Gordon Brown, Labour came to be seen as the party of benefit cheats and bankers. Opinion polls show Labour barely ahead of the Conservatives and Mr Miliband has faced criticism from colleagues who think it should be doing much better.

He has also been dogged by his decision to run against his brother for the Labour leadership last year. A new biography of Ed Miliband claims there are deep tensions between the two men.

THE rift between Ed Miliband and his elder brother, David, extends to their wives, a new book claims.

Ed Miliband’s wife, Justine Thornton, is said to have been deeply hurt by the frosty stance reportedly adopted by her sisterin-law, Louise Miliband, since her husband’s surprise decision to stand for the leadership last year.

Based on interviews with close friends and colleagues of the men, the book depicts a deep rift in the Miliband family that some fear will never heal. It claims that an increasingly ill-tempered election campaign developed into a family schism, evident as much at children’s birthday parties as

Miliband. “This is just malice from people who can’t believe David lost,” she said.

Despite the show of unity, even loyalists accepted that Ed Miliband had political troubles. John Healey, the shadow health secretary, said he had not yet made a mark with voters. “He’s like any opposition leader. It always takes time to establish himself with the public.”

Mr Miliband tried to define his leadership on Monday with a speech criticising his predecessor’s record. For “too many people at the last political meetings, to the distress of the men’s mother, Marion.

Despite his disappointment at failing to secure the Labour crown last year, David Miliband was careful to be gracious in defeat, the book says. But his wife was less forgiving and “cut him [Ed] dead”, the book claims.

In Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader, the authors, Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre, claim it was “the start of a breakdown in the family”.

Miss Thornton and Mrs Miliband are themselves said to have fallen out, while the two men are portrayed as communicating largely through officials.

election”, Labour came to be seen as “the party of those ripping off our society,” he said.

Mr Miliband suggested policies to tackle a lack of responsibility among both the richest and the poorest. He said companies should publish “pay ratios” showing their executives’ pay as a multiple of their lowest-paid workers. “It is said we cared too little about responsibility at the bottom of society. No more. We will be a party that rewards contribution, not worklessness,” he said.

Continued from page 1

as much as recommended. He cut the wasteful spending in only four of the areas identified.

At the time that the Treasury document was produced, Mr Balls was still a backbench MP and would not have been on the official circulation list.

However, other files show he was playing an important role in drawing up Mr Brown’s policies. Before the October 2007 spending review he was made a Treasury minister, then given a Cabinet seat as Secretary for Children, Schools and Families.

The Coalition seized on the disclosures as evidence that Mr Brown’s “reckless” decisions over public spending left the country in a vulnerable position when the economic downturn hit Britain.

A Conservative source said: “This document shows the reckless approach of Brown and Balls which left Britain dangerously exposed to the economic crisis.”

Michael Fallon, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, said: “As recently as last year, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband were denying something we now know to be true. While Britain’s debt doubled, welfare spending spiralled out of control and education standards fell, they were obsessing about getting rid of the elected prime minister and putting Gordon Brown into the position.

“Instead of owning up to their role in a dysfunctional government and coming up with a credible plan to deal with the problems facing Britain, they are starting to plot against each other. They can never be trusted with government again.”

Another leaked memorandum warns Mr Brown and Mr Balls that plans to scrap the 10p tax rate would hit millions of poorer Britons and pensioners, but the change was still introduced.

Mr Brown later denied that there would be any losers from the tax changes, before being forced to announce an emergency compensation plan.

Last week, Mr Balls claimed his political enemies were attempting to exploit the documents and misrepresenting their content.

Other documents reveal how Mr Brown wanted to create a British constitution. Detailed plans for a Bill of

Rights were prepared, including possible regulations for the media, but the proposal was quietly dropped after he moved into No10.

The disclosure of the economic documents in the Ed Balls files follows his demands that the Coalition abandons its public spending cuts. Earlier, Mr Balls demanded that George Osborne, the Chancellor, draw up a “Plan B” for spending if the economy deteriorates.

In the wake of the disclosures over his role in plotting to oust Mr Blair, Mr Balls denied he had acted improperly.

He also claimed that Labour began discussing the “transition” from Mr Blair to Mr Brown before the 2005 general election, even though Mr Blair had promised to serve a full third term.

In a radio interview, Mr Balls was asked: “Even though publicly Mr Blair had said he would serve a full third term, he wasn’t saying that privately?” Mr Balls replied: “Yes.”

A friend of Mr Blair said: “Ed is basically saying Tony deceived the public at the 2005 election. That is not true.”

Plot against Blair: Page 4

Continued from page 1

parts of Bedfordshire, and western Norfolk were officially experiencing drought conditions.

Sunday’s downpour – which came days after the Government encouraged water rationing – brought back memories of the hot summer of 1976, when the skies opened shortly after the government appointed a “Minister of Drought”.

Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, has announced measures to reduce water use.

Households across Britain are bracing themselves for hosepipe bans and rising food prices. Farmers in East Anglia and the South East, who harvest half of the country’s grain, have already lost much of the crop.

Boris Johnson: Page 21 Tennis: Pages 42-43

STOP PRESS: TENNIS

As the Telegraph went to press on Monday, Andy Murray won the delayed final at Queen’s, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4